ADVANCED SUSTAINABLE HOME IN WYOMING
In an environment such as Laramie, Wyoming, a fully sustainable, successful net-zero working and living structure is no small undertaking. Project lead’s Marshall Contracting, Inc. chose a modified “envelope house” scheme to come with a totally passive solar heating solution for a client’s unique request for a combination workshop/back-up residential structure for self-sufficient living, which collects radiated solar heat and stores it during the day for use at night. To provide an equally-sustainable means of supplying electricity, the design team opted for a 6kWh PV/solar system with battery bank consisting of twelve large 2V batteries connected in series to form a 24V high-capacity bank. Complete with plexi-shielding and structurally sound steel racking, it can store 54.9 kWh nameplate energy storage safely and securely—very important with an energy storage solution designed to be lived with inside a home.
MALANKARA PLANTATIONS LTD
India’s celebrated first net-zero office building represents a integration of tradition and technology: an 88-year old historic landmark built by a company founded over a century ago, being repurposed into a modern working office complex with 18 tons of air conditioning, water pumps, packing machinery, IT/networking infrastructure, and lighting. And in a country known for daily grid-power interruptions, costly utility power and even costlier diesel fuel, and strong government incentives in place, it made economic as well as ecological sense to use solar electricity to power the complex.
GULF SOUTH SOLAR
This full-service renewable energy system specialist provides solar power options in a region known for frequent powerful storms and long-term power outages. Founded in 2003, the company was one of the
Energy Storage eFeature |January 2015
Malankara’s 27kW 3-phase solar generation plant comprises an array of nine inverter/chargers with a 2,040Ah bank of 24 2V high-capacity batteries designed to run the complex’s mix of loads in a system completely disconnected from the grid, and one eliminating up to 47 tons of carbon emissions per year while reducing diesel consumption to practically zero.